


The Quiet One

by Aishuu



Category: Superman Returns (2006)
Genre: Character Study, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 16:59:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3903964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aishuu/pseuds/Aishuu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exactly what does Richard White know?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Quiet One

**Author's Note:**

> I am in the minority that loved Superman Returns. And despite my Lois & Clark upbringing, I loved Richard White, too.

There is more than one way to be a hero. Sometimes a hero flies through the air and performs superhuman feats, putting out fires, catching out of control planes and fetching kittens out of trees. Other times a hero exposes corruption while writing fabulous stories about the gritty realities of life. And sometimes a hero is marked by what they don't do.

Richard White knows a man who is capable of bearing the world literally on his shoulders. He is in love with a woman who has accumulated accolades for her never-ceasing journalistic quest for the truth. And that leaves him to fulfill the final role, by keeping his mouth shut about what he sees.

Richard has always had questions about Jason's paternity. He loves the boy as his own, although he's smart enough to realize the math doesn't match and there's no way Jason is his biological son. It doesn't take much thought to realize that whoever the man is, he's not in Lois' life anymore.

Lois isn't the type to go for casual affairs or one-night stands. That leaves two candidates – a man who had once been Lois' partner, and the man who once dominated her life. It could be either of them, and Lois is not forthcoming when Richard tries to gently pry the information out of her.

He doesn't let himself worry about it, because he and Lois are good together. They have a solid love, and Richard likes the life they build together. They believe in the same things, and their family is a happy one. Richard decides that Lois can keep her secrets. He knows where he stands.

And then they're both back, arriving within days of each other. 

Clark Kent. Superman. He finds himself looking at each of the men suspiciously, wondering which is Jason's father. He studies their faces, checking the bone structure and eye color and comparing it to _his_ son's. 

It quickly becomes apparent to Richard that they are the same man. Clark may slouch, but he has the wide shoulders and capable hands that mark Superman. Their joint reappearances are too coincidental to be dismissed. Occam's razor. The simplest answer is usually the correct one. Richard wonders why no one else sees it.

He floats the idea past Lois, in a playful fashion, but she laughs the very idea off as impossible. Richard watches her face, and knows she isn't lying. Perhaps she's just being willfully blind, unable to accept that the Man of Steel is also the friend who trips over his own shoes, and dips his tie in his coffee every other day.

He considers confronting either or both of them with the truth, but realizes it's not his place. Clark has made no romantic overture toward Lois, and Richard knows he won't. Lois shows no signs that she wishes to end their relationship, and he decides that he can live with this equilibrium. He is Jason's father, and Lois' fiancé, and that isn't going to change.

He keeps quiet because he loves Lois and he loves Jason. And if anyone is worthy of respect, it's that mild-mannered reporter who saves the day every time he is needed. It is in Richard's silent loyalty, his unspoken promise that he will never tell, that marks him as a man of rare courage.


End file.
